Alternative Energy Training Falls Short

by Claude Solnik
Published: December 29, 2008
Tags: alternative energy, Renewable Energy Long Island, solar energy, Stony Brook University
Published in the LI Business News

Kevin B. MacLeod, an electrician and owner of KPS Contracting and KPS Solar, is a green graduate. But don’t look for a green degree in his office. His environmental education has been varied, including a one-week class at Farmingdale State College, courses offered by solar manufacturers off Long Island and time spent on the job, learning a recently emerging trade.

Although there has been much talk about a rise in green-collar jobs, there are few programs offering training in skills, such as installing solar panels.

“I learned a lot working as an apprentice for other contractors, asking questions and studying,” said MacLeod, also the chairman of the Long Island Solar Energy Industry Association. “The industry’s so new, there’s no formalized school where you can go for six months.”

As green rhetoric meets growing green demand, Long Island’s limited resources in green-collar training could become an issue – unless education ramps up.

“I haven’t seen new programs rolled out. But there’s definitely a need for it,” said Gordian Raacke, executive director for East Hampton-based Renewable Energy Long Island. “The manufacturers have their own programs, but not on the Island. You have to travel. We need to establish an infrastructure on Long Island.”

While Stony Brook Southampton offers an environmental curriculum ranging from green farming to understanding solar and wind power, and Stony Brook’s Advanced Energy and Research Technology Center does research, neither provides technical training for green-collar jobs.

”We have students who work for solar companies,” said Darren Johnson, a Stony Brook Southampton spokesman. “They’re learning on the job.”

Farmingdale State College is leading the solar installation training push, while the New York Institute of Technology and Stony Brook are expanding alternative energy education. Suffolk Community College, which developed a program to train people in heating, air conditioning and ventilation, is considering launching a longer, full-fledged solar installation and skills program as educators grapple with green demand.

And a consortium of SUNY schools on Long Island recently formed to attract grants to train students for green-collar jobs.

“With more awareness of green technology and global warming issues, there has been a considerable increase in demand for our workshops,” said Yelleshpur N. Dathatri, a SUNY Distinguished Service Professor at Farmingdale, which since 2001 has offered three solar panel workshops annually, but hopes to expand to six this year.

Dathatri, who gets five calls a day from people interested in solar, said workshops fill within four days. Each course, which Dathatri said includes hands-on experience, is limited to 25 students. The school debuted workshops at a reduced cost thanks to a grant, but now charges $550.

Electricians, engineers and the general public learn solar skills, including site surveys, electrical calculations, how to size a system correctly and how to select product types at Farmingdale’s week-long sessions.

And Dathatri said the school hopes to offer training in installing solar thermal systems, geothermal systems and wind energy systems.

Since school curriculums are limited in this area, many people instead learn on the job and through the traditional apprenticeship model. “That’s a tried-and-true thing,” MacLeod said of apprenticeships. “You get a basic understanding and on-the-job training.”

Manufacturers and distributors are trying to fill the green education gap, teaching skills to understand, use and install solar and other alternative energy technologies.

Peter Baumert, president of Energy Efficient Solutions in St. James, said, “Manufacturers and organizations are forming entities to train people.” The Structural Insulated Panel Association in West Virginia trains workers to install solar panels. Baumert trains workers on Long Island to install Solarcrete, an insulated concrete panel.

“The reps are hopefully the most knowledgeable individuals to assist an individual working with a certain product to work the new way,” Baumert said. “It’s pretty much hands on.”

Manufacturers are developing continuing education as well as basic training programs. Solar panel maker SunPower requires approved distributors to take courses each year at its “SunPower University,” learning solar power calculations, installation, wiring, maintenance, sales and safety.

“It’s a whole program that we’re all required to send our people to,” MacLeod said of courses costing $500 each in North Carolina, California and upstate New York.

For the moment, MacLeod doesn’t think a shortage of training is leading to shoddy work. But he worries it might as the industry expands.

“It could be a problem down the road. It hasn’t been a problem because of the minimal amount of contractors coming into the field,” MacLeod said. “If the industry expands, you’re going to get a lot of new people coming into the field who don’t know enough about it. You’ll probably end up with some bad installations.”